The other day, it was announced that Detroit was filing for bankruptcy, the largest American city, if not the largest city in the world to do so. I find it quite depressing really, that once a great city has been allowed to rot like this. I shouldn't be suprised though, as cars was it's heart, it's what made Detroit. Once manufacturing of cars left for Asia in the 80's and 90's, the city sort of died i guess but to think in all this time it hasn't really been re-invented yet. It has been allowed to wallow in the past. Just one of the great flaws of capitalism i guess, as profit was put first and so companies would rather exploit Asian workers rather than employ people in their home country. And to think this could of happened in many cities around the world if they weren't reinvented. The Eastern parts of London come to mind for me, that area became a dump in the 80's but does ok now because of the financial district and the investment from the 2012 olympics.

But anyway, let's discuss this.

1. Was this avoidable?

2. How can Detroit become prosperous again? if possible

3. Will we ever learn from the mistakes of Detroit? Where most of the city's economy was based off making cars and nothing else.

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I somehow doubt that anyone possibly felt any ounce of surprised by this. Detroit has rotted over the years all culminating into it's bankruptcy. I agree, it's kind of sad. But not surprising.

I see Detroit as never coming back to being what it used to be. Maybe, just maybe, they might get out of bankruptcy and be alright. But they'll never be a useful city. No company wants to invest their time and money there.

Also, a question. What other cities have filed for bankruptcy in recent memory? I can't think of any...

NintendoPie said: I somehow doubt that anyone possibly felt any ounce of surprised by this. Detroit has rotted over the years all culminating into it's bankruptcy. I agree, it's kind of sad. But not surprising.

I see Detroit as never coming back to being what it used to be. Maybe, just maybe, they might get out of bankruptcy and be alright. But they'll never be a useful city. No company wants to invest their time and money there.

Also, a question. What other cities have filed for bankruptcy in recent memory? I can't think of any...

I can't name them but apparetly a bunch of towns in California went bankrupt, none of the major ones though

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'When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called the people's stick'- Mikhail Bakunin

It is rather sad to see great cities fall apart, I remember a trip i took to Cleveland a couple years ago. The city was absolutely massive in size but as I drive the down the streets they were empty and the buildings were all vacant. I asked the taxi driver where everybody was and he told me how the city had gone from over 1,000,000 in population in the 1970's to under 500,000.

It is the nature of capitalism to reward the innovative and destroy the slow and corrupt. Detroit was a symbol of both. Liberal corruption had completely taken over and the market has served judgement without mercy. I always find it interesting to hear how liberals will say that to save Detroit we need to do more of what killed Detroit.

In this case pensions were the ultimate downfall. One of the big con games currently in city managment is to increase pension funding instead of giving raises to workers. The workers think they are getting a great deal because when they retire they are promised anywhere from 90 to 110 percent of their current working salary, I know I would take that deal. Of course it is all a con game by the politicians who never fund the pensions. So now some poor guy works 30-40 years with next to know wage increase and when he goes for his pension the liberal bureaucrats show him the door and give him the finger.

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The big question is why didn't the state or the federal government step in to help bail-out the city. The problem with a bankruptcy is that institutions that belong to the city, even artwork and items within it's museums are now open to sale.

Since the late 60's Detroit has been in decline, however in more recent history it had begun rebuilding. The problem is that Michigan experienced the economic depression long before the rest of the country did. So when the housing bubble burst, and the economy dropped, Michigan felt the affects even worse.

Add to that, years and years of corruption in the city government and people looking out for themselves more so than their constituency, and you have a city that was bound to decline.

The city will rebound. The reason for bankruptcy is the fact that it has so much pension debt and so little tax revenue due to people leaving the city for economic reasons. With real estate values incredibly low in Detroit, and I'm guessing unemployment high, you'll see lots of businesses returning.